Using an electronic device (e.g., a mobile device) to wirelessly access a network such as the Internet usually entails connecting the device to a wireless access point (WAP) which is in turn connected to the network. To prevent unauthorized devices from connecting to the WAP, the WAP may be password protected. Specifically, the device attempting to connect to the WAP may have to supply a valid security key to connect to the WAP. Traditionally, a user utilizes the device attempting to connect to the WAP to scan for available WAPs in the vicinity and selects a particular WAP to connect to. The device may then prompt the user to enter the security key for that WAP. If the user enters the correct security key, the device may then connect to the WAP to attain access to the corresponding network.
This traditional approach is problematic since the user has to either 1) type in the security key manually, or 2) copy the key onto an Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive and plug the USB drive into a USB port of the device attempting to connect to the WAP. Given that current security protocols such as Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) require long security keys, typing in the security key manually is cumbersome and error prone. Using an USB drive can be problematic since the device may not have a USB port and/or users may not have easy access to a USB drive.